Shamed former Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys marries 35-year-old friend of his daughter in Devon

Richard Keys has married Lucie Rose, a friend of his daughter Jemma, after previously denying falling in love with the lawyer while his then wife was fighting cancer.

Former Sky Sports presenter Keys, 66, tied the knot with Rose, 35, at a ceremony in the village of Kingswear, Devon on Saturday.

Keys, who fronts beIN Sports’ Premier League coverage, had split from Julia, his wife of 34 years, back in 2016 after allegedly having an affair with Rose.

Julia revealed in 2018 how Keys’ affair ‘devastated’ her world as she recovered from thyroid cancer and also wrecked the lives of their two children, Jemma and Josh.

But Keys, who was sacked in disgrace from his £500,000-a-year job fronting Sky’s Premier League coverage in 2011 after making disparaging remarks about female referee Sian Massey-Ellis, has denied the affair happened. 

Richard Keys has married Lucie Rose, a friend of his daughter Jemma, at a ceremony in Kingswear

Rose, 35, married Keys, 66 on Saturday. The former Sky Sports presenter had previously denied having an affair with her

Keys (centre) pictured with his ex-wife Julia (left) and their daughter Jemma. Keys has denied he ‘fell in love’ with a friend of his daughter’s 

In an interview with The Athletic, Keys said: ‘I’ll mention the unmentionable for you. Did I leave my wife fighting cancer? No.

‘I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why our marriage ended the way it did, but my wife was fighting cancer for seven years before I left her and she had been in remission for seven years.

‘She and I went to London every day of her fight, prior to a ground-breaking operation that saw her in a period of recovery.

‘Julia had been in remission for seven years. I know how hard it was for her when things went wrong. 

‘I wasn’t going to start engaging in a tit-for-tat, he-said, she-said, respond to everything that was said about me.

‘If people believe that I walked away with my wife fighting cancer with a friend of my daughter’s. I can’t change that now.

‘Tell a lie twice and it becomes the truth. Tell it on social media and it haunts you forever. I didn’t fall in love with a friend of my daughter’s.’

It emerged in September 2016 that Julia Keys had filed for divorce on grounds of adultery amid accusations her husband had an affair with Miss Rose.

It was reported at the time that Keys met Rose while living in Doha, Qatar, where he works for beIN Sports.

Keys said he helped wife Julia (right) through a seven-year period of recovery from cancer

Julia had previously published details of the impact of her husband’s affair in one of her books

The pair were understood to have been introduced by a mutual acquaintance on the expat social circuit in Qatari capital Doha, where Keys was working as a presenter for TV network BeIN Sports.

At the time, it was reported that Mrs Keys, a psychotherapist, felt her husband had ‘run out of chances’ after she had stood by him following his sacking by Sky Sports.

Keys and co-presenter Andy Gray made offensive off-air remarks about Premier League official Massey, claiming she didn’t know the offside rule.

In another studio conversation, which was filmed but not transmitted, Keys asked pundit Jamie Redknapp about a former girlfriend, saying ‘Did you smash it?’ meaning ‘did you have sex with her?’

In April 2018, Julia wrote about her husband’s affair in her book The MANScript, saying: ‘Richard’s affair didn’t just devastate my world, but the world of our children Jemma and Josh too.

‘It is only now, two years on, that he has admitted he did have an affair with Lucie, as well as acknowledging his deceit and the damage it has caused.

Keys still lives in Doha where he is the frontman for the company’s football coverage alongside former Sky Sports colleague Gray.